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Julian Assange addresses supporters from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London

If it bows to political pressure it becomes part of the problem it was designed to solve

Julian Assange

Berlin-based freedom of information campaigners Wau Holland collected almost £1million in donations for WikiLeaks before it was cut off by PayPal in 2010 for "activities that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity”.

Wau Holland’s charitable status was temporarily revoked by German authorities but has since been reinstated.

Mr Assange claimed US authorities had also attempted to build an initial “financial blockade” to silence the whistleblowing site back in 2010.

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Demonstrators show their support for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange

He said: ”The financial blockade was one of several fronts we faced, along with a US grand jury, a Pentagon ‘war room’ and an intense propaganda offensive by the US military, the political class and virtually all establishment media.”

He said he had notice an increasing anxiety in US donors over the legality of supporting WikiLeaks and said the US-based Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) was coming under pressure to stop processing donations to Wikileaks.

Mr Assange said: "If it bows to political pressure it becomes part of the problem it was designed to solve.”